On 23/02/11 12:53, David Suna wrote:
Hopefully this is not to off topic. My daughter is interested in
getting a new phone (specifically a touch phone). We have narrowed
down the choice to Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Wave S8500, and LG
Optimus One.
1. Does anyone have recommendations for or against any of these models
(or a particular other phone they would recommend)?
2. The Galaxy phone has a significantly lower SAR rating than the
others. The information I have found online has been rather unclear
whether this is something significant that would recommend this phone
over the others. Can anyone point me to reliable definitive
information about this?
3. If I were to purchase one of these (unlocked) phones online and
have it brought to Israel how easy is it to add Hebrew support?
Thanks for any help.
I'll try to set the record straight.
First - the fonts. As of Android version 2.1, the OS arrives with Hebrew
fonts out of the box (unless the carrier you bought it from REMOVED them
to save space, that is). This is not perfect, as the font is an external
font, and only covers the basic font type - no bold nor italics in
Hebrew unless you install your own fonts.
Installing a new font requires root access. This is not so much because
of the fonts directory permissions as it is because the system file
system is mounted read only, and you need to be root to remount it. Bear
in mind that many Motorola phones are notoriously hard to get root on.
As far as radiation goes, it is my belief that this is bollocks. There
is no theoretical basis to the claim that non-ionizing radiation causes
cancer, and no empirical data showing why the theory might be lacking.
The entire EM scare seems rooted on the fact that it is called "radiation".
I have held the Galaxy S, and I have to agree with Micha - it is too
big. The nexus one is much more friendly, in that regard. I have never
held the Nexus S, but it was my understanding that it is the exact same
hardware as the Galaxy S, except with an unlocked boot loader. People
here seem to be of a different opinion, and that is based on actual
observation, then take their word over mine. Either way, unlocking a
Galaxy is not as easy as unlocking a Nexus. The Nexsus phones were
specifically designed to be easily unlocked.
As far as BiDi goes - there's the rub. I'll start out with the good news
- Honeycomb (3.0) has much much much better BiDi. This helps you not a
bit, as no phone will run Honeycomb. Samsung phones bought in Israel
have a Samsung developed BiDi which may or may not be better than the
stock Android BiDi. I have not tested the Galaxy S' BiDi too deeply
(might do so tomorrow and let you know). The stock BiDi for Gingerbread
(2.3) and down is extremely partial. Some applications do not enjoy it
at all. Some have BiDi, but not proper alignment of the paragraph. Some
texts simply don't appear correctly. The most annoying, if not downright
dangerous, problem is that numbers after Hebrew text appear from right
to left. The stock BiDi is simply unworkable.
There are third party BiDi supports for phones you import yourself.
Assuming you have root, there are some very detailed instructions on the
iandroid.co.il forums. They patch the binary of the system files, but
work fairly reliably. They fix the most obvious problems with the stock
Android BiDi, though still leave something to be desired in my taste.
Lastly, there is the matter of localization. At least as far as the
Galaxy S is concerned, in one word - don't. The interface is left
aligned, and the translations themselves leave more than a little to be
desired. I actually stared at some of the texts the system was
producing, trying to figure out what the phone was trying to tell me.
Just stick to the English interface.
Hope this helps,
Shachar
--
Shachar Shemesh
Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
http://www.lingnu.com
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